574 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



is an expression of such a debility. But let us farther take 

 notice of the several marks of debility in the voluntary motions 

 of the body, as we will understand it best by tracing it in its 

 several degrees. First the patient feels some uneasiness in walk- 

 ing about or in standing upright, and is obliged to sit down ; 

 perhaps he can still bear a sitting posture, but as the debility 

 proceeds he is unable to exert so many muscles as are necessary 

 to support the body even in a sitting posture, so that he is oblig- 

 ed to lie along in the horizontal posture, in which few mus- 

 cles are exerted : thus he is unable to bear the erect posture in 

 consequence of the sense of lassitude and the debility of the 

 muscles ; and the very raising the head from the pillow makes 

 him uneasy, and is attended with giddiness. This proceeds still 

 farther, and when the person lies down the debility appears 

 still in his not being able to perform the motions which we can 

 easily execute in that situation, such as turning the body from 

 one side to the other ; and at length even the lying upon one side 

 being attended with the exertion of several muscles, becomes 

 uneasy or impossible ; the patient therefore tumbles upon his 

 back, in which posture fewer muscles are exerted. But as the 

 bed is sometimes made declining to the lower part, and the 

 head a little raised, the exertion of some muscles is necessary 

 to keep the body even in that posture ; and it is observed that 

 the person is constantly sliding down in bed lower and lower, 

 till at length the limbs become flaccid and hang over the foot of 

 the bed. These are clearly the symptoms of a constant progress 

 of debility in fevers; and the higher degrees of it are mentioned 

 among the bad presages of all the ancients. 



" These symptoms are taken from the voluntary motions of 

 almost the whole body ; but there is a more compendious way 

 of remarking this debility, that is, by observing the features of 

 the face and the state of the eyes. The muscles of the face are 

 almost in constant employment, are variously moved, and give 

 different expressions of the countenance in consequence of every 

 revolution of our thoughts ; they are endowed with a remark- 

 able power and alacrity of motion ; and when they are flaccid 

 and changing, this is considered properly as a sign of consider- 

 able debility. But it is especially in the quick and vivid mo- 

 tions of the eye that the state of health and vigour is to be per- 



